Ghana opposition holds protests against alleged voter roll irregularities

ACCRA - Ghana's main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party on Tuesday held nationwide protests against alleged voter roll irregularities, demanding an independent forensic audit to rid the register of errors for free and fair elections.

Voters in the West African gold- and cocoa-producing nation will head to the polls on Dec. 7 to elect a successor to President Nana Akufo-Addo, who will step down in January after serving the constitutionally mandated eight years.

The election will pit ex-president John Dramani Mahama of the NDC against current Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party.

The NDC party leaders said the electoral commission illegally transferred voters to different voting stations without their knowledge, compromising the integrity of the register.

Clad in red and black, thousands of supporters marched through principal streets in the capital Accra, blaring reggae and campaign songs from loudspeakers and calling on international bodies, Ghana's peace council and religious and civil society groups to intervene.

Protest leaders presented petitions to parliament and the electoral agency in Accra. Protests also took place across Ghana's other 15 regions, according to local media.

Protester Kwame Acheampong, 68, told Reuters in the local Akan language that his registration had been transferred from the capital to the northern city of Tamale.

"How can I go to Tamale to vote?" he said.

The electoral commission has said identified errors have been corrected.

In August, it suspended a district director in the northeastern town of Pusiga for "using his credentials to transfer voters without their knowledge."

Ghana is one of Africa's most stable democracies, but about eight people died during the last election, which was also marred by opposition accusations that the government unfairly influenced the outcome, which it denied.

Allegations of irregularities dent the electoral authority's image. A July survey by pan-African research group Afrobarometer showed trust in Ghana's electoral commission at historic low since confidence polls started in 1999.

NDC party chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia told protesters he wanted "nothing but transparent elections.”

"Ghana's democracy is on a serious test and we want (it) to prevail. It's time for war to remove anything that has the tendency to push us into a bigger war."